The chain’s approach seems to be working with like-for-like sales in British shops, a measure of sales which strips out the effect of new stores and is designed to indicate the underlying health of the business, rising 3 per cent in the year to the end of March.

E-commerce sales rose 64 per cent in the same period and contributed to that growth.

Earnings before interest, tax and depreciation rose 5.8 per cent to £200.2 million. However, the company was forced to write-down the value of its French chain Mim by £64.2 million which dragged the group into a statutory loss of £55 million on sales of £1.53 billion.

New Look also has to pay annual costs on the debt its private equity owners Permira and Apax used to buy the business a decade ago.

New Look has overhauled its UK store estate over the past two years as an illustration of its faith in what retailers describe as ‘bricks and mortar’. Kristiansen said 264 out of 600 shops have been renovated.

More recently it has introduced another update to its standard shop design which it has developed in China and which it expects to use when it refits store in future.

Most high street retailers failed to react quickly enough to the rise of the internet. Many are finally doing so but finding their relationship with shoppers is increasingly complex.

Some shoppers - particularly younger shoppers – spend a large proportion of their disposable income online which explains the rise of successful online-only companies like Asos and Boohoo.

But there are many others who prefer to visit stores to pick up or return goods without the time consuming element of posting back unwanted items or clothes that are the wrong size.

‘We are more and more looking at the stores and the internet as one and ask whether it is the right thing to do to close shops down when they provide an overall benefit. People can come in and see the stores and feel the clothes which they can’t do online,’ said Richard Collyer, interim chief financial officer at New Look.

Collyer has been at the business for five years in various roles and duties currently include overseeing the turnaround of the French business.

Collyer said New Look’s group internet business is profitable and only 18 of its 600 British shops make a loss. He said New Look considers the loss from those stores to be negligible against New Look’s overall sales.

New Look refinanced its business last year to put it on a firmer financial footing. It was thought that might put it on track for a stock market listing but Kristiansen said today he does not expect that to happen in the next 12 months.

It is likely that troubles at its 356-store French business Mim, which Kristiansen said the company would consider selling, have weighed on float plans.

The group also wants to open more stores in countries such as China, Germany, Russia and Poland.